French far-right leader Marine Le Pen at an appeals trial on Tuesday rejected her party having had any "system" to embezzle European Parliament funds, as she seeks to save her 2027 run for president.
A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution.
It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a "system" from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.
Le Pen, 11 others and the party are appealing.
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"The term 'system' bothers me because it gives the impression of manipulation," Le Pen said in the dock on Tuesday.
"The parliamentary assistant cases must be examined one by one, because it seems to me they reflect very different realities," she added.
The appeal hearings are to last until mid-February, with a decision expected this summer.
If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best chance to win the country's top job.
She made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, before losing to Emmanuel Macron. But he cannot run this time after two consecutive terms in office.
No activism 'during working hours'
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.
She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.
Read moreWhat to know about French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's graft appeal
Le Pen is hoping to be acquitted -- or at least a shorter election ban and no time under house arrest.
As the appeals trial opened last week, Le Pen said her party had "no sense" they were committing any offence, and sought to shift the blame on the European Parliament.
"If indeed any wrongdoing was committed, the European Parliament did not play the warning role it should have," she said on Tuesday last week.
On Thursday, EU Parliament official Didier Klethi said the legislature's rules were clear.
EU lawmakers could employ assistants with the monthly staffing stipend the parliament gave them -- which was 21,379 euros in 2024, he said.
Assistants could also engage in political activism, he added, but this was forbidden "during working hours".
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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